Google Play Games just got a lot more useful thanks to gameplay recording

Now when you open up the Play Games app, you can choose which game you want to play and choose to capture it in either 720p or 480p. As with YouTube Gaming, you can also record your own reactions and commentary using the front facing camera and microphone.

Once you’re done playing, you’ll be able to edit and upload the content onto YouTube.

It makes the Play Games app – which is pre-installed on the vast majority of Android phones – much more useful. Until now, it’s mostly remained a hub for keeping track of achievements, and though you could launch games from the app, personally, I generally simply used Android’s native launcher. This could encourage serious mobile gamers to open the Play Games app a lot more often.

While Twitch remains the defacto platform for livestreams, YouTube still dominates pre-recorded gaming sessions – this will just make it easier for mobile gamers to capture gameplay with needing any specialized hardware.

It also serves as a neat advantage over Apple. iOS is the most popular platform for mobile gaming, but the screen capture feature could help encourage some users to choose titles on Android instead.

The feature is rolling out in the US and UK over the next few days, and will arrive in other locations soon.